Talk:Nichijou Manga Volume 10/@comment-12360859-20170928042931/@comment-12360859-20170930002246
Yeah... Hard to believe such an amazing series is over. Sounds like you read way more into the finale than I did, I completely missed the parallels with Nano's ketter, and I somehow failed to notice the giant pile of scrapped letters around Mai. Seems like she couldn't write a letter without getting all sentimental. It reveals a lot about her character, and reminds me how little we actually knew about her true personality beforehand... Prior to the finale, I think the only other scene that shed any light on Mai's inner thoughts was the one where she turned down the fancy highschool to stay with Yuuko. Well, that and the part where she get's increasingly frustrated by Hakase's total immunity to her pranks. I totally agree with your assessment of the final chapter. It served as a great final, though, like I said, I wish there was more of a build up to it. The pacing was like, "Here's some more random scenes... Whoops! Looks like the finale's here!" You're right that the details really make this volume. I seem to find more and more every time I look through it. The funny details and parody are probably the only thing Volume 10 has in common with the rest. I mentioned before that Arawi was breaking all sorts of conventions, but he was also making new ones! Off the top of my head, I can count at least three running jokes he created and used exclusively within Volume 10. The "Prank Successful" sign was definitely the best. One thing you mentioned was the Principal and Vice Principal with the spoon. They were actually using a naginta. The implications actually make it better in my opinion; the Vice Principal somehow procured a geniune medieval weapon and brought it to school to challenge the Principal in an honorable duel, where they battled with amazing martial arts. One of the "conventions" Arawi broke was the new Principal vs Vice Principal scenes. They used to be absurd, but grounded in reality. The premise was the Vice Principal hating the Principal because the Principal took his job, and though some of the conflicts were crazy, they were always realistic (putting bread in the Principal's locker, replacing his staue, making jabs during morning announcements), creating a pretty realistic feeling story about an old man with a petty grudge against another, based off a percieved slight that was actually out of the other's control. In volume 10, the realism is completely dropped, and they now physically battle each other in increasingly absurd situations, and eventually develop a secret affinity that they hide with aggression. In Chapter 180, it is pretty funny (is that the first thing that pops into your mind, Annaka?!), and you're probably right in it not being fanservice related (fanservice in Nichijou, hard to grasp that concept), but it was jarring to me nonetheless. And yeah, there was definitely a problem with translation. I actually looked up a fan translation of Chapter 182 to see if there were any footnotes or comments about it, but no dice. My best guess is that the original joke might've actually used an English phrase, thus Mio's laughing at Yuuko's forced usage of it. Also, this may just be me overthinking things, but I think the chapter might actually be joking about itself too... Hear me out: The first thing I thought when I saw Yuuko's expression was, "That's a bit unusual. The expression doesn't really fit what's going on in the scene." When Yuuko's expression ended up being unimportant to the scene, I assumed that Arawi had come up with another funny face, but being unable to fit it in to another scene, he kind of shoehorned into this one, where it kind of worked with what Yuuko was saying. Writing this comment I had a realization. Maybe the scene's also joking about Arawi being unable to find a good context for a funny face he'd come up with and forcing it somewhere where it kind of half-fits. What do you think? It's a stretch, but you have to admit it would be something Arawi would do... For Chapter 187, the cause of the body swapping is actually shown, but Arawi purposely hid it in plain sight so you would say "Doh!" when you finally notice it. Look through the chapter again and see if you find it. Hint: It's a machine. Did you find it? The final page has that tall panel showing Nakamura at the bottom of the trapdoor. She's actually crushed some sort of machine, which was the apparent cause of the bodyswapping. The walls have a few of Hakase's drawings, and if you look back to the Chapter's first page, you'll find the explanation for the whole thing. Looks like Hakase wanted to take her imitation game to the next level. Also, the drawings under the trapdoor imply that Hakase spends a decent amount of time there. A trapdoor in the front yard, a false wall in the hallway... How many secret rooms Shinonome Lab have, and why does only Hakase know of them? Now that I think of it, maybe the house actually does have a laboratory with a bunch of crazy technology Hakase uses to create robots and stuff... it's just hidden underground! Man, this is really setting off the crazy fan-theory part if my brain, so I have to stop here before I write some massive thesis on the trapdoor's possible implications and the implications of those implications.